Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Crystal Palace was good 10 years ago. I went last year for the first time in probably 10 years and it didn't seem like the same place. There was barely anyone there. Back in the day you would have to wait forever. The calabash style seafood was new, but it was better before.
I went there with my family about 15 years ago. My brother was probably about 5 at that time and wouldn't eat anything on the buffet. My parents brought him some crackers to snack on while we ate. They refused to let us eat there because of the crackers (no outside food policy). We never went back.
The buffet that was near the Walmart on Wake Forest Rd used to be pretty good. I haven't been to Raleigh in years, so I have no idea if it's still there.
My sister loved that place before the remodel. Every time I ate there, I went home with an upset tummy and felt sick. It got to the point that I just said no when sister asked me to go. Sister said she wasn't as thrilled with it after the remodel.
Vicki
That used to happen to me at other regular, excellent Asian restaurants. Turned out I was allergic to soy, which is not an unusual allergen.
Crystal Palace was good 10 years ago. I went last year for the first time in probably 10 years and it didn't seem like the same place. There was barely anyone there. Back in the day you would have to wait forever. The calabash style seafood was new, but it was better before.
What kind of food is Capital buffet?
Capital Buffet meaning the new (now former) name of Crystal Palace? I think they termed it "American food."
It was billed as "Low Country" cuisine. I'm not really a buffet type but I did like the Chinese food they had there. When it switched to American, I figured I'd give it a try.
Like I said, for the same price as Golden Corral, you only had about 1/3 of the choices and the food wasn't anything special.
I agree with the general consensus that the closing of Crystal Palace is not a big loss from a dining standpoint, but makes me a little sentimental. A quick story: My most vivid memory of that place will always be from August 2, 2005. It was a typically steamy summer afternoon, and I was driving in my old beater car, headed south on Capital Boulevard, waiting at a red light there at the intersection with New Hope Church/Buffaloe. I remember thinking for a few moments that I smelled something funny, and wondered what it was. Then I noticed that the guy in the car in the next lane over was trying to get my attention, rolling down his passenger-side window, waving his arm, and beeping the horn a little. So, I rolled down my window, and he shouts over at me "Your car is on fire!" It took another split-second for that to register, but then I noticed that with the window down there was a strong smoky smell in the air, and in the rear-view mirror I could see a lot more smoke than normal coming from the back end of the car, so I exclaimed "Holy sh*t!!!" and veered the car over onto New Hope Church and then into the strip mall parking lot, parking over near Crystal Palace. I got out and saw that, indeed, there were open flames on the underside of the rear of my car, apparently from grease leaking out of the rear differential splattering on the exhaust pipe near the muffler. I was panicked on several levels, including the fact that, of course, the gas tank was right there above where the fire was. So, I ran breathlessly into Crystal Palace and told the host guy "I need a fire extinguisher, my car's on fire!" He didn't seem to believe me at first, and flatly refused to give me a fire extinguisher. I said "Come on, man, this is serious, it could blow up right here in your parking lot." Finally, after an excruciatingly long few more seconds, he gave in, but still wouldn't just give me the fire extinguisher, instead telling his boss that he would be out for a couple minutes, and came out with me and wielded the fire extinguisher himself. I'll always remember squatting there on the hot asphalt next to the Crystal Palace host, watching as he squirted the undercarriage of my car with the fire extinguisher, hoping that it would work, and wondering how much danger we were both in. But he did manage to put the fire out, and I thanked him heartily for his help, although he still refused to let me use the restaurant's phone to call a tow truck, so instead I borrowed a cell phone from a patron leaving the restaurant. And I sat there dejectedly on the curb, sweating in the heat, still a little choked-up from the fire extinguisher dust and the few minutes of terror I had just experienced, reading magazines I had in the car while waiting for the tow truck to show up. Ugh. RIP, Crystal Palace/Capital Buffet.
This place is not far from my office. I sometimes go to the Far East Vietnamese restaurant next door. I was there today and saw the sign at the door of Capital Buffet. I'm not surprised it closed. When I would drive by I never saw that many people there during the day. That shopping center is not doing very well.
This place is not far from my office. I sometimes go to the Far East Vietnamese restaurant next door. I was there today and saw the sign at the door of Capital Buffet. I'm not surprised it closed. When I would drive by I never saw that many people there during the day. That shopping center is not doing very well.
I see this as an ideal area for redevelopment. The 3 shopping centers on these corners used to be very busy when I was younger. Now, not so much. Tenants continue to leave or change to something that is even less of a draw, leaving a lot of vacant land. Wake Tech could've easily built its new campus here with a deck or two and commercial space.
Crystal Palace was the very first place that we ate as a family after moving here. We drove down from NY on a Sunday, got to our hotel off Glenwood Avenue by 440 in the evening, and tried out the Crystal Palace on a whim. I liked the food, my wife, not so much. But it does hold a little sentimental value as our first meal together after moving here.
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